Crisis in Honduras

October 28, 2008

Apologies to anyone checking this blog for travel uopdates on our trip to Honduras. Bad internet connections, and a busy schedule have meant not a lot of time for blogging. I’ll try and do a bit of a general round-up of our trip to Honduras soon but at the moment I want to comment briefly something far more relevant to most Hondurans than our travels, the weather crisis.

The rain which has bothered us since our arrival in Honduras last week became more than a nuisance. A tropical depression (number 16 apparently) dumped massive amounts of rain across Honduras and, as could be predicted in a heavily deforested country, has resulted in devastating landslides and widespread flooding, The damage has been compared to Hurricane Mitch, although with the death toll somewhere around 30 the mortality rate certainly doesn’t compare.

We have been safe and (mostly) dry through all of this. It did give us some concern last week due to road damage, and will likely again as more rain is forecast this week and we need to travel to San Pedro Sula later in the week in order to do some interviews and then fly home. However the hardest thing is knowing this is going on, it’s heartbreaking to hear daily of people loosing homes, and worrying to think about all the crops lost and infrastructural damage that will plague this country for months (if not years) after the international community forgets.

Collapsed hotel on the road Danli-Tegucigalpa road. We travelled past here last Thursday. On spotting the collapsed building we heard several people on the bus saying “Amen” and “Thank the Lord”. We later found out it was a by-the-hour hotel. Evangelical Christians are clearly not upset by this particular building collapse. (photo from Reuters).